Touch & Go

Brackeys2026 Game Jam Submission

Game Link - https://scott-ewing.itch.io/touch-and-go

We set out to make a game which was inspired by Rock of Ages and Katamari, but ended up with something that was fast, chaotic, and built around momentum.

Touch & Go was created as part of the Brackeys2026 GameJam, with the theme being Strange Places. We took this theme and ran with the idea of having the player go through an alien world where they will also find objects from our world, such a strange place to find these items.

Players take control of a ball racing downhill at high speed. As you roll, objects will drop in front of you and will also be able to stick to you, increasing your mass and momentum. making it easier to smash through obstacles and collect coins. But at any moment, you can trigger an explosive burst which will release a powerful shockwave that blasts objects off, clears space, and pushes away obstacles in your path.

Touch & Go

To kick things off, we began by planning out the core gameplay and scoping what we wanted to include. Below is the rough outline we put together during the brainstorming phase of the game jam.

As the diagram shows, we were able to implement all of the elements for the game's levels, the only feature we left out was holes scattered throughout the level. After consideration, we decided this would do more harm than good, likely creating unnecessary frustration rather than adding meaningful challenge to the player experience.

Starting the Game Jam

Prototyping and Experimenting

Of course, a hill for the player to race down was always going to be central to the game, but I wanted to make sure it tied meaningfully into the game jam's theme of "Strange Places." To achieve this, I set the environment on an alien world, which took care of the game's overall aesthetic and backdrop, but that still left the playable surface itself to think about.

For that, I decided to model the ground after the same hexagonal rock formations found at the Giant's Causeway. These striking, naturally uniform structures felt like a perfect fit; they added visual interest and a sense of the unusual to the surface the player would be navigating, while also reinforcing the "Strange Places" theme in a way that felt grounded in something real and recognisable.

Gameplay Hook

The core gameplay hook centered around objects sticking to the player as they raced down the hill, this was the mechanic the entire game was designed and built around. Like most features, it was refined iteratively as the project progressed, largely through a back-and-forth design process between my partner and me, working through how the mechanic should feel and behave in practice.

One key addition to emerge from this design loop was the explosive ability. We recognised that players could become overwhelmed with too many objects attached to them at once, which risked tipping the experience from fun into frustrating. To counter this, we gave the player the ability to clear all attached objects in one go, blasting them away with an explosive force. A release that we wanted to feel as satisfying as it was useful.

Game-feel and Fun

As the project was coming together nicely, we turned our attention to game feel and making sure the overall experience was genuinely fun to play. One of the biggest contributors to this was the camera, we added speed lines and a subtle camera shake whenever the player built up enough momentum, giving a real sense of velocity when barreling down the hill at full speed.

During our own playtesting, we noticed that the space between the walls of boxes felt a little empty and passive, so we added rocks along the sides of the level. These gave players something to interact with, letting them roll up and launch off them to create exciting, high-energy moments. It was also around this time that we made a significant change to the playable surface, swapping out the hexagonal ground for the grass seen in the final product, and repurposing the hexagonal formations as obstacles for the player to navigate around instead.

With these additions and changes in place, the game became noticeably more engaging. I found myself genuinely enjoying the run to the bottom whenever I was testing something, which felt like a good sign that the experience had come together well.